Mr. Kamlesh Argal, IRS, Vice Chairman, Income Tax
Settlement Commission announced that Camp Office of the Bench of Income Tax Settlement Commission will be set
up soon at Hyderabad for the convenience of Assessees of AP.

Mr. Argal stated that Settlement
Commission is an independent body and it comes under Department of
Revenue. The Income Tax Settlement Commission (ITSC) is an Alternate
Disputes Resolution (ADR) mechanism for resolving tax disputes relating to
Direct Taxes. At present, seven benches of the Settlement Commission are
operational at New Delhi - 3, Mumbai -2, Kolkata – 1 and Chennai - 1,
respectively.

The Commission was constituted w.e.f. 01.04.1976, on the recommendation
of the Wanchoo Committee (1971). The Committee conceived the Commission as a
mechanism for providing room for settlement and compromise for one-time tax
evaders or unintending defaulters. The Commission reduces litigation in respect
of an applicant for several years relating to proceedings of various natures,
such as assessment, penalty, prosecution, tax collection, etc. Each such
proceeding before an Assessing Officer of the Income Tax Department is
appealable before Commissioner (Appeals) and later before the Income Tax
Appellate Tribunal and where it involves question of law, even up to High
Courts and the Supreme Court.

Later in 1996, a review of the mechanism of the Settlement Commission
was done by a committee led by Justice Duggal, which found that the Commission
has been substantially successful in achieving the objects for which it was set
up.

This
commission comprises persons of integrity and outstanding ability, having
special knowledge of and experience in, problems relating to direct taxes and
business accounts.

The Settlement Commission
consists of a Chairman, Vice-Chairmen and Members. However, the number of
Vice-Chairmen and members in the Settlement Commission is decided by the
Central Government. Prior to 1.6.2007, there
was no time limit prescribed for the Commission for passing the settlement
order. Now the time limit is 18 months in respect of applications filed after
1.6.2010. The Settlement Commission disposes of several
proceeding for several assessment years in respect of an applicant conclusively
within 18 months. Its orders are final and conclusive. In regular channel of
assessment and appeal for each such proceeding, it may routinely take at least
5 years for each such proceeding to conclusively end.

Ms.
Nivedita Biswas, Director of Investigation, Income Tax Settlement Commission -
Chennai Bench in her address stated that, who have come with the income tax
related problems to Settlement Commission, they went away with the happiness.

1 comment:

Thanks for sharing useful information. Indeed IRS Settlement was a big pain and it almost screwed my future, poor credit score and all worse that can happen. Still i was lucky to find few experts that helped in my irs debt settlement, irsmedic.com were experts and help me in IRS settlement quickly. I was helped, hope you will too.